Has your child ever “gone missing”

[Hipposat]

Yesterday 4yo DS2 went missing for ten minutes (although it felt like hours) Me, him, DH and DS1 were at an outdoor fair. DS1 was on a ride with DH and I took DS2 to the bouncy castles. All was fine, then DS1 came over to say DH had sent him over to get his phone off me (it was in my bag) I must have had my eyes off DS2 for roughly 5 seconds, turned back round to watch him on the bouncy castle and he was no where to be seen.

All 3 of us were running around shouting his name, asking people if they had seen a little boy walking around on his own, told a member of staff about the situation and they were helping us look for him and they stopped letting anyone in or out. At this point I am trying my best to stay calm but also trying not to throw up from fear. God it was absolutely terrifying. It was such a large space with hundreds of people. So scary.

DS1 eventually spotted him at the top of a fun house running around having the time of his life. I’ve never felt relief like it. I actually cried when I got hold of him. He is autistic so doesn’t understand the danger of just running off from us and wouldn’t have been able to tell anybody he was lost etc so this made it all seem even worse. We recently got rid of his reins as he was doing really well without them but I am going to order some again I think😅

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? I barely slept last night with guilt

Lost my then 3yo at haven in Berwick. She had liked the wee soft play area and had taken herself off to there when we blinked. She was playing quite happily and had even taken her shoes off.

Lost DD age 3 in the dark at winter wonderland in Hyde park. We’d been to get candy floss and I had stopped and, let go of her hand abs was distracted for a second putting the change back in my bag. She’d followed on another adult thinking it was me I think!

One child took herself off to visit something while we were on holiday. We'd visited the place the day before. She wanted to go and buy something from the shop at the attraction. She was six and is super 'special'. It caused mobilisation of the whole police force in the place we were. Her school teacher didn't believe her when the class talked about what they'd done in the summer! We lost a kid at Disney. We lost one when we were all walking along and she stopped to 'chat' to a dog.

Yes, 4 year old DC2 at a busy themed day in the grounds of Pollock House, she just disappeared into the crowd. It was about five to ten minutes, but felt like longer. The staff put alerts out everywhere, sometime after we were called to the Missing Children's tent, where a young (20sish) couple were making their way with DC2 riding on the man's shoulders. This was twenty years ago, you never forget. My brother was missing on a beach for a similar amount of time, and my mum still remembers it over fifty years later.

When ds was little around 3. We were in the house couldn't find him anywhere we searches heigh and low shouting over and over really loud . No sign of him. I ended up talking the police then searched as well could not find him. They were just about to do an area search when one of the policeman lifted the bed up heigh and he was under it but he had put himself in between the drawers so he couldn't be seen by just looking under. The policeman told him to wake up and he didn't wake . Then he projected his voice loudly. Still didn't wake. Then he pulled him out by his legs and shouted more . He eventually woke. He didn't remember any of it the next day.

@babybythesea that's a brilliant idea!!

So many scary stories😩 They like to keep us on our toes don’t they! We’ve always called him the flash and he definitely lived up to his name yesterday😬

Lost 2yo DD in Asda. I'd been in the clothing section and she was bored being in the trolley. She was having a great time running to the end of the aisle where the mirror was then running back to me, like a big game of peekaboo. Until all of a sudden she wasn't running back to me. I'd assumed she'd decided to pose for the mirror so wandered down to the end of the aisle. Not there. Not the other side either.

I was frantic. Ran up and down every part of the large clothes section yelling her name. No sign. Ran to the clothes desk but they didn't have a tannoy, so headed for the front of the store to customer services. Whereupon I spotted DD at the edge of the toy aisle, a good 20 metres from where she should have been.

It would have been no more than 5 minutes but I was terrified. She was a runner, would wriggle out of reins, and if she made up her mind to go somewhere, she was FAST! After that experience, I learnt not to multi-task when with her.

I've since learnt it's best to shout a description rather than child's name - 2 yo, pink coat, purple leggings - as it's more likely to get people's attention - you want other adults looking out for the child.

In one of the most idiotic acts of my life I left dd in her pushchair upstairs in a clothes shop while I went to the lower level to return an item, when I came back up the pushchair was empty and she was nowhere to be seen, searched the shop, looked outside at the high street which was packed, shitting myself at this point. Finally found her in a corner of the shop admiring the costume jewellery. She was only about 3, luckily I’d taught her never to leave a shop if we got separated. Still have nightmares about it, unbelievably stupid thing to do on my part just because I couldn’t be bothered carrying her down the stairs.

Dad left toddler brother in a supermarket once. Completely oblivious until he got home and mum asked where he was. Cue much hysteria. He was fine. Was sat in the chocolate aisle enjoying a kitkat!

My mum, aged 20 , came home from the shops and was climbing up the steps thinking’these bags don’t usually feel this heavy’ then ‘oh because they are usually under the pram ..,THE PRAM!’

ran back into town - my sister was still safely parked in her pram outside the co-op

Ugh yes my 3 year old at a farm park positioned between a lake and a busy road. I didn’t know which way to look first.
I was by myself with him and my 5 year old so had enlist other people to help me look.
I was at the crying and shouting stage (probably 10 -15 minutes but felt like more) when I spotted him happily sitting in a ride on bus completely unaware that he was missing.

We were at a hotel after BIL and SIL wedding (not the wedding venue), it was around teatime and MIL said that she would take DD age 2 1/2 to the soft play area. After about 30 mins I went to the soft play area to find MIL deep in conversation with another woman and my DD was nowhere to be seen. I obviously panicked and panicked even more when I realised the hotel had a huge garden area with ponds as it had been in the news that a young boy had drowned at a wedding a few weeks earlier. A few of us went out searching and found our DD had gatecrashed the wedding downstairs and was happily mingling on the dancefloor with the other guests. Needless to say MIL was not trusted with her alone again.

This would be quite anxiety provoking behaviour for both of you though? Given the fact it mostly happens once if at all.

Buy them both bright yellow coats or hats or t shirts it really helps on days out like that

The one that still stops my heart even though he didnt actually get lost ... at a party at MIL's house. DS was 2. He had been playing with some of DH's cousins but DH and I (stupidly) hadn't specifically thought to say to the cousins, "call us if you want us to keep an eye on him again" so when he got bored and wandered off none of them thought anything of it (they were late teens themselves - this was 100% me and DH's fault). Thank god, as he was hading ot of the front gate of MIL's house, into the road, my dad happened to walk past the front door and saw him. So he stopped him and brought him inside.

I still feel a bit of a cold sweat thinking about what could have happened (she lives near a very busy road AND a river!!!!!

This would be my son! Loves remembering shoes off

Op both my dc have Autism and in all honesty ds escaped so many times I'm amazed he has survived to adulthood.......he was so wily and determined. He's outgrown it thank God and is glued to me these days but my God the stories I have 😬

I used to have a SN buggy for him, he'd he triple strapped with the buggy straps, then one pair of reins attached and another pair on back to front also attached AND a wrist strap attached to me due to his habit of escaping it and bolting. He once resorted to tipping the buggy onto its front wheels and trying to escape a train like some giant tortoise with wheels. That boy is the cause of every one of my grey hairs.

I used to have a clear keyring with my phone number attached to him at all times, either on his pant loop or his zip on his coat. Also slept with my house keys under my pillow for years. Still here tho and he by some miracle and my hypervigilance never came to any harm.

Lost DC2 aged 4 in the supermarket.
One moment he was right behind me, next thing I know he isn't. Sent 6yo DC1 to run along a bit ahead of me along the centre aisle looking up & down each aisle as she went. Security guard must have heard my frantic shouting for DC2, he & 3 staff members went looking for DC2 whilst I stood by the entrance/exit to make sure he didn't leave & I phoned DP - he ran from his workplace (massive site almost right next door, but the only exit is the long way 'round so a fair distance) on hearing how frantic I was.
Turns out the little terror had gotten frightened when he'd gotten lost & hidden under the clothing racks.
Never have I been so relieved as when he was brought to me, holding a staff members hand and sobbing as I think he'd been just as frightened as I was.

Many years ago I lost my DS3 in John Lewis. I went round one of their bed displays. He went through it. When I got to the other side, he was gone! Got help, and 15 panic-stricken minutes later we found him. Was he upset? Was he fuck! He put on the widest possible grin and said 'I was hidin!' if I wasn't so relieved to find him, I would have strangled the little sod!

Lost DD, 2 at the time, in a shopping centre. The whole centre had to be locked down so nobody could get in or out. She was found, eventually, in Woolworths (showing my age!) helping herself to the pick 'n' mix. I was so upset but she didn't bat an eyelid. DH and I both thought she was with the other one. Also lost DS, 8, at Lingfield race course. They called a code blue, lock down type thing. He was gone for over half an hour 😫. Turns out he had been playing manhunt with the children of the friends that we were with. They had gone home, he was still hiding.

My ds once escaped from a fire exit at a soft play, his dad and I had no clue until security brought him back thinking we had both exits covered.....not realising that within the soft play there were hidden party rooms and each one had a fire exit (( was fuming with the girl on the desk as we'd specifically asked where any fire exits were. ))

The place had a motorway slip road behind it and a canal in front.........he's an adult now and I still have nightmares about it. We were so lucky that day.

Lost the eldest (ironically our most sensible one) at a theme park. There was no tannoy or system in place. Just me and my friends running around. Thankfully upon discovering she was lost my clever 3 year old went into a cafe and told the staff.

I lost our son at London zoo when he was about three weeks into his placement, in my panic when asked about him by staff I couldn’t name/describe a single item he was wearing. He was very quickly found sat between two bushes playing with a stick.

We lost our daughter in Ikea, the toilets had two exits one to the cafe and one to the main entrance, I sent her out to her waiting Papa as she was done but sent her out the wrong exit, after then going to the loo myself I left via the correct exit. Thats where we also discovered that when you report a missing child in Ikea they lockdown, so essentially no one can leave. She was found very quickly, it looked like a lot of people get confused by the two exits in the loo.

I once thought I had lost her in sainsburys, when in reality I hadn’t even taken her with me, it wasn’t until I was about to report her missing it dawned on me that I had cycled there and we didn’t have a bike babyseat, she was also only three months old, so I’m not sure how I thought she has ran away.

My eldest dd did when she was about 3/4. We were in Asda walking down an aisle, I had the trolley and she literally took off down the aisle. I went after her and by the time I got to the bottom she was gone. Ran right along the middle of the aisles looking up then back down and couldn't see her. Really panicked and went to the customer service desk who got the security guard at the door and put a tannoy out.

I ditched the trolley at the desk and went along the middle of the aisles again and back and as I got back to customer service a woman was walking out the toilet with her. Said she'd found her at the little kiddies sink just washing her hands when she went into the cubicle and still there washing them when she came out so asked where her mummy was. It was one of the scariest moments I've had.